


Like Any Other Day

by TorterraGarden



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, also if anything in this contradicts anything in ray's route don't point it out cause i don't care, but where's mc idk, post secret endings i guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-20 13:36:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14895578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TorterraGarden/pseuds/TorterraGarden
Summary: The twins' birthday is coming up, the first one since they've been reuinited





	Like Any Other Day

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for Saeran week, using the birthday prompt. It's not my best work but I had to do something for my boy Saeran. Enjoy!

It wasn’t that Saeran disliked birthdays. He just had never had a reason to care about them before. Growing up, he had known that his birthday was on the eleventh of June, but it had never seemed like a particularly special day to him. It had never been allowed to feel like one. It wasn’t like he ever could have thrown a party, invited friends over, received gifts… he couldn’t do any of the things that people usually did. It was always just another day, and most years he barely realized that it had passed. 

The only reason he was thinking about it now was because Saeyoung had reminded him that it was coming up.

“These last few years, birthdays were always depressing,” Saeyoung told him. “It didn’t feel right to celebrate it without you.”

Saeran didn’t know what to say to that. He sort of understood what Saeyoung meant, about how celebrating their birthday apart from each other would feel strange and wrong. But, well, Saeran hadn’t thought about it that way. He hadn’t really thought about it all. At least Saeyoung had had the luxury of having a birthday, even if it wasn’t all he wanted… but it’s not fair to think like that, Saeran reminded himself.

“This year will be the first year I might actually enjoy my – _our_ birthday.” Saeyoung smiled. “Any idea what you want to do?”

“Nope,” Saeran said. He wondered if Saeyoung would want to have a party. He’d probably want to invite the whole RFA… hm. Saeran was getting used to them, slowly, and at times he even felt a grudging fondness for them, but spending an entire day with them was always exhausting.

As if he knew what Saeran was thinking about, Saeyoung said, “We don’t have to have a party if you don’t want one.”

Saeran shrugged. “We can have one. Just… a short one.”

“But we’ll do something together, right?” Saeyoung asked.

“If you want to, sure,” Saeran said. Saeyoung looked disappointed at that, so Saeran said quickly, “It would be nice to spend it together. Really. I’m just – um –”

“I get it,” Saeyoung said. “Take some time to think about it, okay? We’ll talk later.”

Saeran nodded and Saeyoung left the room, closing the door behind him. As much as he could be a handful, Saeyoung was good at recognizing when Saeran wanted to be left alone, without Saeran having to say anything. He was grateful for that, at least.

There were only a few birthdays that stood out in Saeran’s memory. The earliest one he could remember, he and Saeyoung turned… had they turned four? Yes… it had been their fourth birthday. They hadn’t gotten anything from their parents, of course. No party, no cake, no presents. That hadn’t really mattered to either of the twins at the time, however. Saeran remembered the two of them staying up very late that night. They had had to be quiet, so they wouldn’t wake their mother. They had stood at the tiny window in their room, and they were barely tall enough to look through it properly, but they were able to get a view of the stars anyway. Even at the time Saeyoung had loved space. He had talked about getting a rocket ship one day and flying away to live on a star with Saeran, safe from their parents and from the world. It would have been a good gift, if it had been possible. 

Another birthday Saeran could remember well was when they had turned eleven. They had snuck out of the house for ice cream, and Saeyoung had been chattering excitedly about how their letters to Hogwarts might be coming soon. Saeran hadn’t understood what that meant, and he had eaten his ice cream so fast he had given himself brain freeze, but he had enjoyed how normal that day felt. It almost felt like something other kids might do on their birthdays. Goofing off with his brother, making himself sick on sweets that were too good to eat with any patience… it wasn’t exactly like what kids would do, maybe, but it was the closest he and Saeyoung could have gotten, and that had been enough.

After Saeyoung left, Saeran started losing track of his birthday passing, but V and the Savior – no, not the Savior. Rika. The name she had gone by was Rika. V and Rika… they remembered his birthday. They usually got him a gift of some kind. It never meant much to Saeran. 

Saeran could remember the first birthday he had spent at Mint Eye. Rika had brought him ice cream and cake, and for a moment he had been confused as to why before he realized what the date must be. He didn’t even remember how old he was turning until she told him. She had told him to take a break from working and sit with her, and so he had. She had talked about how pleased she was with how far his hacking skills had come, and how much good he would do for the beautiful paradise she was building. At the time it had all felt so good, to hear her praise, to have this rare moment of open kindness and affection from Rika… although now it was deeply unpleasant to remember. He wondered how genuine any of her praise was. He didn’t like to think about it.

Remembering his past birthdays was making Saeran uncomfortable and slightly sick. He didn’t want to make a fuss over this one, but it seemed to be important to Saeyoung.

He tried to make himself feel excited about this. He would be turning another year older, but that wasn’t fun to think about. It only made him remember how much time he had lost. Well… there would be cake, probably. That was a good thing. He might get presents too. Oh, would he have to get Saeyoung a present? Saeran didn’t have any of his own money, and it seemed strange to spend Saeyoung’s money on a gift that was meant for him anyway. Maybe Saeran could borrow money from another RFA member, or he could just make something for Saeyoung. What could Saeyoung want that Saeran could make with his own hands?

Ugh. Birthdays were stressful. It was easier when they passed without him realizing they had.

It hadn’t been long since Saeyoung had left Saeran alone in his room, but time to think wasn’t really helping Saeran at the moment. Maybe he should just be honest with Saeyoung about how this day didn’t matter to him. He would be fine going along with whatever Saeyoung wanted to do, but Saeran would be just as fine doing nothing.

He found Saeyoung in the kitchen, sitting at the counter. He was eating those chips that he liked so much. Saeran had tried them before, and Saeyoung had been scandalized when Saeran dubbed them “okay”. Saeyoung looked up curiously as Saeran came in.

“Hey, you know when you said you found birthdays depressing?” Saeran asked.

Saeyoung’s eyes widened in surprise. “Um –”

“Well, honestly, I never gave them much thought,” Saeran went on. “Most years… I didn’t even realize that our birthday had passed. I just never had a reason to care about it, so I didn’t.”

“I think that’s actually more depressing,” Saeyoung said.

Was it? “I don’t know. I don’t see it that way.”

“Why did you run out here to tell me this?”

“You told me to think about what I want to do for our birthday,” Saeran said. “But I really don’t care. So you can pick.”

Saeyoung didn’t say anything to that, which was making Saeran uncomfortable. Was he disappointed? Angry? It was hard to tell, the way he was looking at Saeran wasn’t giving anything away.

Finally he spoke, “Saeran. All of that stuff we missed out on as kids, birthdays and Christmas and Halloween – we get to do that stuff now. Maybe not exactly the way we would have if we were kids – I think we’re too old for trick or treating and stuff like that. But at least now, celebrating holidays and birthdays together isn’t impossible.”

“Yeah,” Saeran said. What wouldn’t Saeran have given to be able to get presents on Christmas, or go trick or treating on Halloween when he was a kid? He had never thought about his birthday as a holiday before, but he supposed in a way it was. Like a personal holiday that everyone had. A personal holiday that he shared with Saeyoung. “Yeah, I get that.”

“But if you’d rather not do anything, that’s fine too,” Saeyoung said.

“That’s not what I said.” Now Saeran was feeling strangely guilty, which he knew had not been Saeyoung’s intention. “Hey, why don’t we just… get ice cream on our birthday? Like we did that one time.” It was the best birthday memory Saeran had, after all. It might not be a bad idea to recreate it. It may even turn out better.

Saeyoung smiled. “Yeah, that sounds good.”


End file.
